Justice alters court strategy with Microsoft

Justice alters court strategy with Microsoft

By S.M. Menke

Sep 14, 2001

The serpentine course of the Justice Department's antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. wound almost to an end last month.

Justice backed off from the threat of a corporate breakup in a shrinking market for PC software, announcing that it would try to remedy Microsoft's monopolistic behavior by 'a period of expedited discovery.' Justice will look into the current status of desktop PC software competition after an appeals court trial that ended in June, to see whether 'additional conduct-related provisions are necessary.'

The long list of filings at microsoft.com/presspass/legal/library.asp#doj-fdc shows how hard the software giant fought government intervention in its business. One significant alteration in the company's licensing arrangements was allowing PC makers to place third-party software icons on Windows XP desktop PC screens.

During the course of the three-year battle, Microsoft released multiple new versions of desktop and portable PC OSes, its Office suite and its Internet Explorer browser. Windows XP and another new operating system, Pocket PC 2002, are set to debut in the next two weeks.